Pros:

Cons:

Here's the problem. Leviathan is easily one of the best bits of DLC that Bioware has ever put out - at least matching the quality of Lair of the Shadow Broker, and arguably surpassing it in many ways. It shakes up Mass Effect 3's style, tries a few new things, offers a couple of cool new locations, and is far more than simply a new mission to throw onto the pile. Unfortunately, it's about the Reapers... and while digging into their backstory might have been cool once, that ship has long since sailed. Right into an iceberg.

If Only We Didn't Already Know

In a nutshell, Leviathan is the Mass Effect equivalent of someone in World War 2 deciding to finally track down and weaponize Bigfoot. An Alliance scientist who'd get on well with Fox Mulder has discovered that a mythical creature called the Leviathan of Dis is not only real, but powerful enough to kill Reapers. Unfortunately, Leviathan really wants to remain undetected and out of the way, and is willing to stretch its dark presence into the galaxy to cover up all evidence of its existence. Enter Shepard and Team Normandy.

Oh, to hell with it. Let's just look everywhere in the universe. How long can it take, really?

The action is hindered from the start though by the fact that despite all the talk, you know nothing you do or accomplish is really going to have the impact everyone thinks.

What follows is about two-to-three hours of genuinely compelling, creepy investigation - depending on your difficulty setting and give or take five minutes of smashing your head into your desk because of the new escort mechanic that's thankfully dropped almost as soon as it's introduced. There is obviously plenty of traditional Mass Effect-style combat involved, which adds a couple of weapons mods, but otherwise fighting is unchanged from the main game. The bulk of your time though is spent in adventure mode, especially in scenes where you pore through the scientist's home/lab to figure out where Leviathan is hiding. It's not exactly Sherlock Holmes-level intrigue, but it offers an enjoyable change of pace with plenty of stuff to poke and prod at for more general bits of background.

The action is hindered from the start though by the fact that despite all the talk, you know nothing you do or accomplish is really going to have the impact everyone thinks. We know how Mass Effect 3 ends, and while Leviathan continues picking away at the scab of that ending and the Reapers' origins, it's in a slightly sad way that suggests Bioware thinks the only thing getting in the way of us loving the conclusion is that they've yet to find the right words to explain it. Well, perhaps. But if so, the search goes on.

Good to see that holo-computers of the future still have Boss Keys.

A side story like this can obviously connect to the main plot arc, whether we've seen it resolved or not, but it needs its own stakes. Lair of the Shadow Broker, for instance, did this perfectly by focusing on Liara and her personal story and a brand new threat that was intriguing from his first mention back in the original game. By contrast, Leviathan is still fighting a war that's emotionally over. It's a solid story within that context, just one that never fully justifies why it specifically needed to be told.

The Truth is Out There... Really Far Out There

Leviathan does however help give the Reapers back some of their lost power, by rolling back to their original form as enigmatic, Lovecraftian gods instead of simply scary warships. The first mission is especially good at this, taking Shepard to a creepy mining facility whose workers have set aside cheerfully digging up tungsten in favor of talking in monotones and doing experiments involving words like 'pain tolerance.' It's fairly hammy stuff, but effectively done, with a constant whum-whum background hum building the suspense to the moment you know everything is suddenly going to go down.

Hey, guys. You know how effortlessly I killed the last million of you? Just saying.

The other two missions in the DLC are more action based, with one incredibly fast paced and set in a dig site collapsing around you as you run, before a finale on an ocean planet that leads to an absolutely beautiful final location. It's all squad based, with the Normandy crew getting new dialogue (EDI gets the bulk of exposition duties) and full integration into the story just like a regular mission. Slightly disappointing though, there's only one vaguely meaningful choice to be made. The ending also cries out to be far more interesting than it is. BioWare succumbs to unnecessary exposition instead of something active, like a powerful debate to argue the galaxy's worth to a lazy god.

That War We Already Won

Beyond the DLC's own bounds, not a vast amount really changes. You get a new War Asset or two, which as we know affects pretty much nothing. Still, Leviathan is hilariously weak. It's a living god, one whose dark influence stretches through the galaxy -- an entity even the Reapers fear. Total military worth: 400 points. Good grief. What's it planning to do for the war effort exactly - make some really good sandwiches?

Leviathan's core problem though is that it's a DLC created to answer questions that nobody was asking, after an ending that itself answered too many, which you know from the start isn't actually going to mean much in the great sweep of things. If you can ignore that though, or simply don't care, it's fun addition to Mass Effect 3 and a great reason to be excited about whatever new adventure comes next.

Spy Guy says: Especially if that new adventure is the "Retake Omega" pack that's still unconfirmed, but everyone expects. Gangsters, betrayals and one final chance for Shepard to save the day with the power of dance. You know it has to happen.